Raptors' Rudy Gay has a tough night in loss to former team

Toronto Raptors' Rudy Gay has a tough night in loss to former team

TORONTO — In one sentence, Lionel Hollins neatly summed up why the Memphis Grizzlies would give up on Rudy Gay and why the Toronto Raptors would take a chance on him.

“Every time I look at the box score,” Hollins, the Grizzlies coach, said before the two teams played, “[Gay] has his 20-plus shots and 20-plus points, so many rebounds, so many assists and so many steals.”

Gay will score, sure, but he will eat up a lot of possessions doing so. As a Raptor, he has now scored 184 points on as many field-goal attempts — not exactly LeBron-like efficiency. Those numbers took a hit on Wednesday as the Grizzlies beat his new team 88-82.

Gay had a tough evening. The only shot he hit in the first half was an unintentionally baked three-pointer, and he hit another of the kind in the second half. He finished with 13 points on 15 attempts from the field, and missed four crucial shots and turned the ball over a few times down the stretch. DeMar DeRozan also struggled, going 1-for-9 from the floor.

“They weren’t going to let Rudy get going,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “They were double-teaming him on pick-and-rolls, sending help quickly. They made it tough on him. I felt for him because I knew he wanted to do well. But every time, they were just rotating bodies against him. If he went into a pick-and-roll, here comes a crowd, here comes a blitz. It was one of those nights that he was probably going to have to be more of a facilitator than anything else.”

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That is what the Grizzlies do, though. Gay was a significant part of the Grizzlies, but never the biggest part. The bruising low-post games of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph define their offence, while Tony Allen’s manic play defines their defence. It looks as if Allen takes the old “you can only force a player to take a tough shot” axiom personally — he often made it impossible for Gay and DeRozan to catch the ball. The pair combined to shoot 6-for-24 from the floor.

So the Grizzlies decided they did not want to pay US$37-million to Gay over the next two seasons if Gay opts into his 2014-15 contract, and dealt him for former Raptor Ed Davis and Tayshaun Prince. On paper, it seemed likely a fairly blatant talent loss for the Grizzlies.

But, Prince can defend and hit open shots, and Davis can develop behind their studs inside. Watch the Grizzlies play and you can see the logic: They are trying to eschew the notion that you need a wing player that eats up a lot of possessions to win.

Davis made his return after spending two-and-a-half years in Toronto. The Jan. 30 trade clearly shook Davis a little bit, as the scene in Atlanta on the day of the trade was a little emotional.

“I heard the rumours. I didn’t really think much of it,” Davis said before the game of the deal. “Especially because it was my first time being traded, I didn’t know what to expect. When it first happened, I was hurt. Coming in the locker room, it was tough on me. But that’s over with. I’m just looking forward to this team and going to the playoffs.”

In one of his first possessions in the game, Davis grabbed an offensive rebound over the perpetually maligned Andrea Bargnani and put back a layup. Bargnani was often the player keeping Davis from playing much in Toronto, so it was about perfect.

Of course, now he has more of a substantial impediment to seeing the floor. Randolph, an all-star this year, and Gasol, an all-star last year, start up front for the Grizzlies. They both average more than 35 minutes per game, which helps explain Davis’s 10 minutes per game since he joined Memphis.

“It’s been a little tough,” Davis said. “Especially playing behind two all-stars, sometimes the minutes are not there. I’m just coming in everyday and working hard. My time will come.

He will get those playoff bonuses, though, which constitutes an entirely new proposition.